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Category: Environment

  • Expert committee formed for sustainable climate finance

    Expert committee formed for sustainable climate finance

    The committee consists of leaders across the sustainable finance spectrum, including international agencies, standard setting bodies, funds, academia, and consultancies…reports Asian Lite News.

    In what can be termed as a step towards streamlining climate finance, one of the financial regulators of the Government of India has constituted an Expert Committee to recommend an approach towards development of a Sustainable Finance Hub.

    India has on multiple international, reiterated that the developed countries, the rich nations, must provide finance for the poor countries, the developing world for carrying out adaptation and mitigation activities to combat the devastating effects to the changing climate.

    Adaptation encompasses several steps that help adjust to a given situation wherein the disaster has happened while mitigation can be termed simply as steps taken to either prevent a disaster from happening or at the least, lessen the impact due to climate change.

    These measures, called the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), will require Rs 162.5 lakh crore (USD 2.5 trillion) from 2015 to 2030 per year for climate action. While India can domestically raise this, it has been insisting on getting public money from rich nations for adaptation and mitigation actions.

    “While India’s energy sector is one of the fastest growing in the world and has been attracting substantial investments, meeting the country’s climate goals will require proportionate, transformative investment increases at sectoral level,” a report from FICCI and UNEP had said.

    International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has been established as a unified regulator to develop and regulate financial products, financial services, and financial institutions in the International Financial Services Centres (IFSCs) in India.

    Now, the IFSCA, in its endeavour to develop the required eco-system, has constituted an Expert Committee to recommend an approach towards development of a Sustainable Finance Hub and provide a road map for the same.

    “The expert committee will be chaired by a former secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, C.K. Mishra said.

    The committee consists of leaders across the sustainable finance spectrum, including international agencies, standard setting bodies, funds, academia, and consultancies, a release from the IFSCA said.

    India has committed ambitious climate action, which is evident in its commitment towards its intended Nationally Determined Contributions under Paris Agreement 2015.

    “Raising financial resources for climate change adaptation and mitigation actions of this scale needs active participation of international investors. IFSCA envisions GIFT-IFSC as a global hub for sustainable finance thereby acting as a gateway for channelising foreign capital into India,” the release added.

    The Expert Committee will study the current regulatory practices in Sustainable Finance across major international financial jurisdictions and recommend a robust framework to develop a world-class sustainable finance hub at IFSC.

    It will identify existing and emerging opportunities in Sustainable Finance for GIFT-IFSC to act as a gateway to meet India’s requirements and recommend a short, medium, and long-term vision/roadmap on Sustainable Finance.

    The Committee may also examine and address any other issues which are important though not specifically mentioned in the Terms of Reference.

    IFSC has asked the Committee to submit its report along with recommendations within three months from the date of holding its first meeting.

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  • UK launches series of workshops ahead of COP26

    UK launches series of workshops ahead of COP26

    The findings which will be launched at COP26 will include recommendations on how climate risk assessments for Heads of Government can be improved…reports Asian Lite News.

    As the UK prepares to host COP26 in Glasgow, the government on Monday launched a series of high-level workshops on Recognising Risk—Raising Climate Ambition – to boost the understanding of climate risks among governments around the world.

    The programme builds on recent work published by Chatham House, and brings together best practice in communicating the full risks of climate change from scientists to policy makers and national governments.

    The findings which will be launched at COP26 will include recommendations on how climate risk assessments for Heads of Government can be improved.

    “A better understanding of the full scale of the risks which climate change poses to our way of life and national economies is essential to inform commitments to climate action at COP26 and beyond,” COP26 President-Designate Alok Sharma said.

    “This programme will bring together scientists, policy makers and civil society to improve the understanding and communication of these risks, as we work to make sure we keep the 1.5 degree goal alive,” he added.

    While the scientific understanding of the risks of climate change is now more developed, the full range of climate risks including those affecting our economies, health, and food security is still often still not fully taken into account in national decision making.

    As countries form plans ahead of COP26 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (Nationally Determined Contributions), and build climate resilient futures (National Adaptation Plans), a full and up to date understanding of the greatest risks of climate change to their economies and way of life is essential.

    Professor Carole Mundel, International Science Envoy, Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office said: “The scientific evidence of human-driven climate change is clear. Our planet is our life support system and it is in danger. But, we have a brief chance now to take immediate action to cut emissions and keep warming below 1.5C. If we fail, we risk crossing dangerous tipping points and enter a world with severe fire, flood and famine.”

    Tim Benton, Chatham House: The risks from climate change are underestimated by decision makers, given the multitude of ways events near, or far away, can impinge on our societies – through interrupting the flow of goods, or finance, or creating a flow of people, or undermining stability or governance. This report accessibly highlights these risks so everyone can appreciate their potential.

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  • Miliband says Boris is miles off UN climate success

    Miliband says Boris is miles off UN climate success

    His advice for Johnson, based on his experience in Copenhagen when the summit was “essentially collapsing”, was to “get across the detail, do the hard yards of diplomacy”…reports Asian Lite News.

    Prime Minister Boris Johnson must do the “hard yards of diplomacy” if he wants any kind of success at the COP26 climate change conference in November, Ed Miliband, opposition Labour’s climate policy chief, said on Sunday.

    With just over a month until the world’s leaders meet in Glasgow for COP26, some politicians and campaigners fear the United Nation’s summit is about to throw away what is seen as a last chance to tackle the climate crisis before it is too late.

    Those fears were heightened by a UN analysis of country pledges earlier this month that showed global emissions would be 16% higher in 2030 than in 2010 – far off the 45% reduction by 2030 that scientists say is needed.

    Miliband, an ex-Labour leader who led Britain’s delegation to the 2009 U.N. summit in Copenhagen, said Johnson should step in to support COP26 President Alok Sharma in persuading the big emitting nations to go further and to win over developing nations by delivering on a pledge to vaccinate the world against COVID-19.

    “It’s not just a photo op when he gets to speak Latin and gets to resurrect a classical myth and tousle his hair, it’s a bit harder than that,” he told Reuters in an interview at the Labour Party’s conference in Brighton, southern England.

    His advice for Johnson, based on his experience in Copenhagen when the summit was “essentially collapsing”, was to “get across the detail, do the hard yards of diplomacy”.

    Johnson’s government has hailed U.S. President Joe Biden’s promise to double financial aid to developing nations vulnerable to the worsening climate crisis and China’s announcement it would not build new coal-fired power projects abroad.

    But the COP26 team in London has yet to get major polluters, such as China and Russia, to submit new national emissions pledges, seen as crucial to limiting the global average temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

    Drawing on his experience in Copenhagen, Miliband said it took Gordon Brown, then British prime minister, getting “his hands dirty” by stepping up the pressure on other leaders “to rescue (something) from the wreckage”.

    Britain’s case to persuade others was not helped, he said, by Johnson’s missteps, including cutting overseas aid and not yet fully honouring a pledge to vaccinate precisely those nations where he needs to foster trust, as well as “flirting” with a new coal project.

    “I am afraid there is a sort of inconvenient truth … that we are miles away from where we need to be for Glasgow, miles away,” he said.

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  • Energy crisis hits 1.5 million UK customers

    Energy crisis hits 1.5 million UK customers

    The regulator’s price cap also limits how much firms can charge. But providers have complained that they are unable to pass on rising costs to customers because of the cap on energy bills…reports Asian Lite News.

    Around 1.5 million UK customers have been affected by energy firms collapsing under soaring gas prices, media reported.

    Avro Energy and Green ceased trading on Wednesday and their 830,000 combined customers face being switched to a new, potentially more expensive, provider, the BBC reported.

    All affected customers will still receive energy while a new supplier is appointed by watchdog Ofgem.

    Neil Lawrence, director of retail at Ofgem, said its “number one priority is to protect customers.”

    The regulator’s price cap also limits how much firms can charge. But providers have complained that they are unable to pass on rising costs to customers because of the cap on energy bills.

    Since wholesale gas prices have started to spike, a number of firms have collapsed.

    People’s Energy, Utility Point, PfP Energy and MoneyPlus Energy ceased trading in September. These smaller companies, including Avro Energy and Green Supplier Limited, account for more than five per cent of the UK energy market – about 1.5 million customers, according to the report.

    Earlier, Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng and Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley  We have said that this is not an issue of supply – “the United Kingdom benefits from having a diverse range of gas supply sources with capacity that can more than meet demand.”

    “In the event an energy supplier fails, we are committed that consumers face the least amount of disruption possible – and there are clear and well-established processes in place to ensuring this is the case,” a joint statement from government and Ofgal read.

    “In the coming days, we will also meet with smaller and challenger energy suppliers and set out the next steps for protecting consumers, businesses and energy suppliers from these global prices rises. Central to any next steps is our clear and agreed position that the Energy Price Cap will remain in place,” it added.

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  • Foundations pledge $5 billion to protect nature

    Foundations pledge $5 billion to protect nature

    “This is not a moment where we should not have hope. At the centre of all of this, people will have to be the ones who shape what happens next,” said Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator…reports Asian Lite News.

    Heads of state, philanthropic leaders and indigenous representatives have come together to announce unprecedented commitments to protect and restore nature, at the opening session of the Nature for Life Hub, a high-level event Transformative Action for Nature and People, coinciding with the 76th UN General Assembly.

    Nine organisations pledged $5 billion over the next 10 years to support the creation, expansion, management and monitoring of protected and conserved areas of land, inland water and sea, working with indigenous peoples, local communities, civil society and governments.

    “This is not a moment where we should not have hope. At the centre of all of this, people will have to be the ones who shape what happens next,” said Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator.

    “Societies have found within themselves the ability to address things that often were long overdue whether it was the issues of inequality or exclusion, but also investments in systemic transformations. We are investing in one another’s ability to, together, change the trajectory of the world.”

    The event on Wednesday brought together 22 Presidents and Prime Ministers, as well as indigenous community leaders and leaders from the worlds of finance, philanthropy, and civil society to commit to momentous action for nature, climate and people.

    The nine philanthropic organisations jointly launched the ‘Protecting Our Planet Challenge’ to ensure that 30 per cent of the planet is protected and preserved by 2030 –with a specific focus on the most important places for biodiversity.

    The nine organisations include: Arcadia, Bezos Earth Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Nia Tero, Rainforest Trust, Re:wild, Wyss Foundation, and the Rob and Melani Walton Foundation.

    This is the biggest-ever philanthropic commitment to nature conservation that campaigners see as crucial to unlock greater investments in conservation, to plug the gap in funding to reverse global nature loss, and secure a nature-positive world.

    Ursula Von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, reiterated the announcement that the European Union will double its external funding for biodiversity, in particular for the most vulnerable countries, showing leadership which must now be matched by countries and institutions across the globe.

    The event also included participants from Finance for Biodiversity Pledge that gathers 75 financial institutions from around the globe — collectively worth 12 trillion euros in assets — committing to protecting and restoring biodiversity through their finance activities and investments.

    The announcements send a strong signal to countries to step up their ambition to protect and restore nature ahead of the COP26 climate conference taking place in Glasgow, UK, in November and the COP15 biodiversity conference taking place in Kunming, China in April/May 2022.

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  • India, US set to launch climate action dialogue

    India, US set to launch climate action dialogue

    Kerry has visited Korea, Argentina, Japan, and China over last few days to continue vital discussions on reducing emissions and raising ambition ahead of COP26, the annual climate summit that in UK’s Glasgow…reports Asian Lite News.

    India and the US would launch the Climate Action and Finance Mobilisation Dialogue (CAFMD) on Monday as US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Change, John Kerry visits India as part of his multi-country tour in the run-up to the annual climate summit less than 50 days ahead.

    The CAFMD is one of the two main tracks of the US-India Agenda 2030 Partnership that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden had announced at the Leaders Summit on Climate in April 2021. The other is the Strategic Clean Energy Partnership.

    Slated to reach on Sunday, Kerry will be in India till September 14, meeting ministers, top bureaucrats, and private sector leaders. The US State Department has said Kerry will travel to India to “discuss efforts to raise global climate ambition and speed India’s clean energy transition.”

    Kerry has visited Korea, Argentina, Japan, and China over last few days to continue vital discussions on reducing emissions and raising ambition ahead of COP26, the annual climate summit that in UK’s Glasgow.

    A spokesperson from the Environment, Forests and Climate Change Ministry confirmed the CAFMD launch event on Monday but did not divulge further details.

    Earlier in the year, in their joint statement at the launch of the “India-US Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership”, the two nations had said: “Through this collaboration, India and the United States aim to demonstrate how the world can align swift climate action with inclusive and resilient economic development, taking into account national circumstances and sustainable development priorities.”

    On August 24, Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav had held a telephonic conversation with Kerry to discuss CAFMD Track and had said these platforms provide greater opportunities for working together for climate actions and emphasized that India stands committed to working with the US on clean energy.

    The annual climate summit, the Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC), at Glasgow from October 31, is being seen as a last ditch effort to bring around countries to enhance their emission targets to keep the global temperatures from rising to beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-Industrial era.

    On September 9, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had released its sixth Assessment Report of the Working Group I (AR6WGI), Kerry had tweeted: “Life is about making choices, and we’re facing the biggest one yet. The @IPCC_CH report makes it clear our window is narrowing, but it’s not too late to act. We must choose to earnestly respond to the climate crisis while we still can.”

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  • Johnson urged to reassess Cambo oilfield

    Johnson urged to reassess Cambo oilfield

    UK wants to take a lead in efforts to cut emissions more quickly before the United Nations’ Climate Change conference, or COP26, in Scotland in November…reports Asian Lite News.

    Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Sunday urged UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson not to “simply go ahead and grant the permission” for the Cambo oilfield to start production, media reported,.

    She added that the licensing approval given to the oilfield must be reassessed against the background of more ambitious climate change targets, according to a Reuters report.

    The oilfield, in the North Sea off the Scottish island of Shetland, was handed licensing approval in 2001.

    UK wants to take a lead in efforts to cut emissions more quickly before the United Nations’ Climate Change conference, or COP26, in Scotland in November, but environmental groups have accused ministers of hypocrisy in even considering giving Cambo the green light.

    “I’ve asked the prime minister not to simply go ahead and grant the permission to go ahead with production as a matter of course, that the licence should be reassessed against the same kind of climate requirements as new licences are going to be assessed,” Sturgeon told Sky News.

    “I wouldn’t give the go ahead without a fundamental reassessment of the licence.”

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  • Indian researchers develop wastewater treatment solution

    Indian researchers develop wastewater treatment solution

    It eliminates the need for the conventional primary, secondary, and tertiary processes resulting in maximum colour removal and meets the inland water discharge standards…reports Asian Lite News.

    Indian researchers have developed an “improved” wastewater treatment solution that can completely reuse dye wastewater from textile industry, eliminating its toxicity and making it suitable for domestic and industrial usage.

    It reduces the water treatment costs and facilitate the reuse of the water in dry regions.

    The current three-stage treatment process for wastewater consisting of primary, secondary, and tertiary treatment is unable to treat toxic industrial wastewater.

    The stand-alone Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) treatment technique for colour and odour properties in industrial effluents (dye-based) may be insufficient to meet set government standards and is also limited due to the high cost of AOPs involving continuous supply of chemical reagents.

    “This is because it cannot remove the synthetic industrial dyes and the effervescent colour and odour, which have a long-lasting carcinogenic and toxic effect on the ecological and especially aquatic life. In order to remove this toxicity, an upgraded solution with the AOP technology is the need of the day, a release from the Department of Science & Technology (DST) said.

    Working towards this, researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, with Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, and MBM College, Jodhpur, have developed a modified AOP solution.

    The completely modified treatment process consists of the primary dosing step followed by the sand filtration step, another AOP and subsequent carbon filtration step.

    It eliminates the need for the conventional primary, secondary, and tertiary processes resulting in maximum colour removal and meets the inland water discharge standards.

    Department of Science and Technology (DST), Water Technology Initiative (WTI), along with the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) supported the development of this technology at a pilot level in collaboration with Laxmi Textile Prints, Jaipur for the commissioning of this pilot-scale plant at Textile Industrial Park, Jaipur.

    The “much-improved” AOP technology targeting zero discharge water management system is being utilized for the complete reuse of industrial dye wastewater for domestic and industrial usage at a rate of 10 Kilo litres/day.

    The treatment of toxic and highly carcinogenic industrial dyes of textile effluents is performed using this AOP technology for degrading and mineralizing recalcitrant organic matter from effluent wastewater.

    It is a direct replacement of the existing treatment plant processes and consists of a low-cost solution of dye adsorption on acid-modified soil followed by a photochemical reaction step within a photocatalytic visible light filter and a unique carbon and PAN nano-mat fibre filtration process. Having been set up on a pilot basis, it remediates industrial wastewater.

    The technology has resulted in the recuperation of 50 per cent of the treatment cost incurred from conventional processes for water treatment (especially due to the high cost of sludge disposability) in the water-scarce regions of Rajasthan.

    Further, scaling up of this plant to 100 kilo litres/day capacity to meet the current industrial requirement is underway with automated plant operations, said a release.

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  • IIT Jodhpur to conserve and restore Thar desert

    IIT Jodhpur to conserve and restore Thar desert

    The impact of loss of natural deserts is immense as these habitats are rich in flora and fauna as well as minerals and medicines that nurture and maintain different life forms on earth. Often considered as wastelands, deserts are crucial for stabilisation of climate…reports Asian Lite News.

    The Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur (IIT-J) has launched the Thar Desert Ecosystem Sciences Guided by Nature and Selection (DESIGNS), an initiative to conserve and restore the Thar desert, its minerals and medicines, and its flora and fauna by carrying out ecosystem phenomics through transdisciplinary framework of medical, engineering, environmental and life sciences.

    Thar is a hot desert unique to the Indian subcontinent and is characterised by high maximum temperature with large diurnal variations, scanty rainfall, extreme aridity, and intense UV radiations.

    The impact of loss of natural deserts is immense as these habitats are rich in flora and fauna as well as minerals and medicines that nurture and maintain different life forms on earth. Often considered as wastelands, deserts are crucial for stabilisation of climate.

    Any shift in climate change or anthropogenic activity can lead to mal adaptations for organisms who live at the ebb of physiological extremes, loss of diversity through extirpations and ultimately an ecosystem collapse. This threatens the lives and livelihoods of the native inhabitants.

    “To address this, the Jodhpur City Knowledge and Innovation Cluster (JCKIC) has under one umbrella brought together organisations from the engineering, space research, medical, agricultural, zoological and forestry sectors which have carried out focused efforts in tackling diverse aspects of the Thar desert. This collaboration includes unique projects that address the complex and networked issues of the desert in an integrative framework,” a release from IIT-J said.

    Established in 2008 to foster technology education and research, IIT-J functions from its sprawling residential permanent campus of 852 acres on National Highway 65, North-Northwest of Jodhpur towards Nagaur. This campus is meticulously planned and envisioned to stand as a symbol of academics.

    Speaking about the Thar DESIGNS, professor and head, Department of Bioscience and Bioengineering, IIT-J, Mitali Mukerji, said, “Thar DESIGNS aim to disseminate knowledge and encourage participation through a citizen science approach and inculcate design thinking across the entire collaborative network.”

    Under this initiative, the researchers will use IOT enabled devices and Big Data analytics framework to crowd source observations from the local ecosystem to the regional level, keeping the cultural context and traditional medicine knowledge in perspective.

    “Researchers would also integrate computer vision and machine learning along with domain knowledge to infer links between environment, phenotype and genotype at geo-spatio temporal scales and identify signatures of Thar DESIGNS for early actionable intervention strategies. This knowledge generation will result in providing a ‘Desert Ecosystem Knowledge Grid’ that could foster the cycle of engineering-research-development-commercialisation,” the release said.

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  • UN urges immediate action to cool ‘season of fire and floods’

    UN urges immediate action to cool ‘season of fire and floods’

    With “bold and decisive steps” towards a net-zero global economy by 2050, Mohammed said that the world could still limit global warming to within 1.5 degrees…reports Asian Lite News.

    The United Nations (UN) on Monday underlined the importance of limiting temperature rise to the internationally agreed goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. In the wake of extreme weather events increasingly impacting countries across the world, the annual UN climate conference will take place in Glasgow in November.

    The entire planet is going through a season of fire and floods, primarily hurting fragile and vulnerable populations in rich and poor countries alike, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told a high-level meeting on climate action.

    Speaking via video message to the Dialogue on Accelerating Adaptation Solutions Ahead of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), the deputy UN chief noted already-visible impacts with a 1.2-degree rise.

    “Countries and populations worldwide — particularly those most vulnerable and least responsible for the climate crisis — will experience even more devastating consequences,” she warned.

    “The effects will reverberate through economies, communities and ecosystems, erasing development gains, deepening poverty, increasing migration and exacerbating tensions,” she added.

    With “bold and decisive steps” towards a net-zero global economy by 2050, Mohammed said that the world could still limit global warming to within 1.5 degrees.

    “Acting now is a question of climate justice. And we have the solutions,” she said, calling for a “massively scaled-up investment” in adaptation and resilience, and stressing the importance of simplifying rules and easing access for underprivileged countries, especially those in Africa.

    With less than 80 days to COP26, the deputy UN chief urged the participants to “act boldly now for people and planet before it’s too late.”

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